Water tap



1969 G. A. GILLBERG 3,

WATER TAP Filed June 12, 1967 United States Patent US. Cl. 137-315 6Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention concerns a constructionof a water tap by which it is possible to dismount the tap, for instancefor repacking or maintenance, without the need of any tools. Accordingto the invention the tap handle is nonrotatably connected to a screwactuating the tap valve member by means of a centrum spindle, but isaxially displaceable relatively to same within definite limits. Thehandle and the tap cap accommodating the valve member are provided withopposed claws which are disengaged in mounted condition of the tap, butcan be brought into engagement by axial displacement of the handle, sothat the tap cap thereby may be screwed out of the tap casing by meansof said handle. Finally, means are provided which exert a relativelygreat initial resistance to axial displacement of the centrum spindlewith respect to the actuating screw, but which do not prevent saiddisplacement after the overcoming of said initial resistance.

The present invention concerns a water tap comprising a tap casing, atap cap screwed into said casing and accommodating a tap valve memberwhich is axially displaceable towards and away from a valve seat, anactuating screw turnable by means of .a handle and imparting the axialmovement to the valve member, and a centrum spindle rigidly connected tothe handle and joining same with the actuating screw.

By the repeated dismountings of a water tap in order to repack same thetools necessary for the dismounting usual- "ice to the handle, and thatsaid tap cap and said handle are provided with claws extending inopposite directions and arranged to be brought into engagement with eachother by the axial displacement of said handle and said centrum spindle,so that said tap cap is screwable into or out of said tap casing bymeans of said handle.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described in detail underreference to the accompanying drawing which shows a water tap accordingto the invention partly in axial section.

The tap shown on the drawing comprises a tap casing 1 with a spout and atube 2 for connection with the water supply. A tubular tap cap 3 isthreaded into a threaded bore in the tap casing 1 and is sealed againstsame by means of a packing 4 arranged in an annular groove. The tap cap3 is provided with an axial through-bore which is hexagonal in the endthereof facing the tap casing in .order axially slidably butnon-rotatably to accommodate a tap valve member 5 provided with apacking (not shown) at the end thereof directed towards the tap casing.Said packing co-operates with a valve seat in the tap casing 1 tocontrol the flow of water through the tap.

The part of the tap cap 3 protruding out of the tap casing 1 iscylindrical and the top part 6 thereof has a smaller diameter than therest of the tap cap. Said part 6 with smaller diameter is provided withan internal circular bore which is co-axial with said hexagonal bore.The circular bore encloses an actuating screw 7 which extends downthrough the hexagonal bore and is in threaded engagement with the tapvalve member 5. The screw 7 is maintained axially unmovable in the tapcap 3 by an angular flange 8 abutting against a shoulder 22 between thecircular and the hexagonal bores and by a circlip 9 retained in aperipheral groove in said screw 7 and in engagement with the protrudingend of said tap cap. The outer diameter of said flange 8 is such thatsaid screw can be 1y cause damages of the outer chromium plated surfacesof the tap parts. This does not only spoil the appearance of the tap butsaid damages also increase the corrosion, and the abutment surfaces forwrenches or the like can also be spoiled to such an extent that asucceeding dismounting becomes difficult.

The purpose of the present invention is to set aside the above mentioneddisadvantage and to provide a water tap, the dismounting of which, forinstance for r'epacking, can be accomplished without the aid of anytools. It is thereby intended that the tap and the complete valvemechanism together with the handle shall be removable as an assembledunit, the packing of the tap valve member thereby becoming accessiblefor replacing. The inventive construction is furthermore such, that theappearance of the tap is not affected and that the safety thereof is notlessened, so that for instance children cannot dismount the tap.

Finally, it is also intended that the unit consisting of the tap cap,valve mechanism, and handle shall be usable without any modifications inalready installed tap casings of standard constructions. I

According to the invention these intentions are mainly fulfilled by thefact that the centrum spindle after the overcoming of an initialresistance is axially displaceable relatively to the screw by means of apulling force applied pushed up through the hexagonal bore of said'tapcap into engagement with said shoulder.

The screw 7 is provided with a through hole of hexagonal or otherwisenon-circular cross-section in the part thereof remote from said tapcasing, whereas the opposite end of said hole is preferably circular. Atthe end facing said tap valve member 5 said screw is provided with acounterbore 10 forming a shoulder 11 with said circular part of thethrough hole.

A centrum spindle 12 extends through said through hole of the screw 7and is provided with a hexagonal or non-circular part co-operating withthe hexagonal or noncircular part of said through hole, so that saidcentrum spindle 12 is axially displaceable but not turnable relativelyto said screw 7. Two peripheric grooves are provided in the cylindricalportion of said centrum spindle 12, one in such a position that aslotted wire ring 13 arranged with a radial interstice therein engagessaid shoulder 11 when said centrum spindle 12 is inserted as far aspossible into said screw 7. Said shoulder 11 and slotted wire ring 13serve to exert a relatively great initial resistance'to axialdisplacement between said centrum spindle 12 and said screw 7, but onaccount of the slot in said wire ring 13 and the interstice between sameand the bottom of the cooperating groove, said ring is contracted andtravels past the shoulder 11, so that said axial movement is no moreprevented. This can for instance be achieved by forming said throughhole with a section 14 of slightly increased diameter at some distanceinside of said counterbore 10.

Patented Dec. 2, 1969 The lower peripheral groove of said centrumspindle 12 is positioned at some distance outside the end of said screw7, when said centrum spindle 12 is fully inserted, and accommodates alocking ring 15 meant to come into engagement with said shoulder 11without being able to pass the same and thus limiting the axialdisplacement of the centrum spindle 12.

The preferably hexagonal top end of the centrum spindle 12 is rigidlyattached to a socket 16 and a tap handle 17, preferably of plasticmaterial, is cast around said socket 16 which can be provided withabutments, known in the art and not shown, biting into said plasticmaterial and providing a rigid connection between the socket 16 and thehandle 17. The rigid attachment between the socket and the centrumspindle can for instance be provided by head screw 18 extending throughthe bottom of said socket 16 and axially into said centrum spindle 12.Thus, when said handle 17 is turned, said centrum spindle 12 alsorotates, and via the hegaxonal part thereof said rotation is transmittedto the screw 7 which over the threaded connection with the tap valvemember 5 imposes an axial movement on same in said tap cap 3, s0 thatthe flow of water through the valve seat to the spout can be controlledas desired.

At the outer edge of the socket 16 enclosed in the handle 17 said socketis provided with radial claws 19 extending towards said centrum spindle12. The part 6 of the tap cap 3 having a smaller diameter extends intothe interior of said socket 16 and at the end thereof reaching farthesttherein said tap cap part 6 is provided with radial claws 20 directedaway from the centrum spindle. The length of the part 6 of the tap capextending into said socket 16 and the length of said sets of claws 19and 20 are adapted to each other in such a way, that an axial spaceexists between said claws when said tap cap part is inserted to thebottom of said socket 16, so that the rotation of the handle is notprevented by said claws. The pitch of the two sets of claws 19 and 20 issuch that they can be brought into engagement with each other by mutualaxial displacement, whereafter the tap cap 3 can be rotated by turningthe handle 17 The above described tap is assembled in the following way.The screw is inserted in the tap cap 3 and the circlip 9 is attached.The socket 16 with the tap handle 17 is joined to the centrum spindle byaid of the head screw 18, whereafter the slotted wire ring 13 isinserted in its groove. The unit consisting of a socket 16, the handle17, and the centrum spindle 12 can now be mounted on the screw 7 byinsertion of the centrum spindle through the hole of the screw 7,whereby the slotted wire ring 13 is contracted, so that it can passthrough said hole past the shoulder 11. Finally, the stop ring 15 isinserted in its groove and the valve member 15 is screwed onto the screw7. This assembly is thereafter inserted in the tap casing 1 and thethreads at the lower end of the tap cap 3 are brought into engagementwith the female threads of the tap casing 1. Said final assemblage iseasily accomplished by means of the handle 17 with the claws 19 thereofin engagement with the claws 20 of the tap cap 3. When the tap cap isproperly seated in the cap casing, the mounting is completed by pushingthe handle downwards to bring said claws out of engagement and the wirering into engagement with the shoulder 11.

The dismounting of the above described water tap for repacking isachieved in the following way starting from the position of the partsshown in the drawing.

By a sharp pull in the handle 17 the initial resistance provided by theslotted wire ring 13 is overcome and said slotted wire ring is forcedpast the shoulder 11 so that the tap handle 17, the socket 16, and thecentrum spindle are axially displaced relatively to the rest of the tap.This axial movement is stopped when the end surfaces of the socket claws19 come into contact with the opposed end surfaces of the tap cap claws20. By turning the handle 17 a fraction the sets of claws 19 and 20 canbe made to meshwith each other under further axial movement of thehandle together with the socket and the centrum spindle. If he handle 17is thereafter turned, the tap cap 3 is carried along through theengagement between said claws 19 and 20, and thus said tap cap 3 can beunscrewed from the cap casing 1 with the aid of said handle 17. Therebythe whole tap mechanism with the handle and the tap cap is loosened fromthe tap easing 1 and can be pulled out as a unit, since the locking ring15 makes it impossible fully to pull the centrum spindle 12 out of thescrew 7. After the exchange of the packing at the end of the tap valvemember 5 the tap is reassembled in the contrary way to the one justdescribed.

By means of the above described construction it is therefore possible todismount the tap for repacking or the like completely without toolswhich may damage the chromium plating of same. If measures have beentaken in a convenient way to interrupt the water supply to the interiorof the tap casing 1 this repacking can be undertaken in a few minutes bya technically untrained person, which substantially lessens the costs ofmaintenance of a building.

It should also be pointed out that the above description only takesaccount of the constructional feaures of imporance for the invention,whereas the construction of the details as for the rest have not beenconsidered. Finally, the inventive construction can also without anysubstantial modifications be utilized in combination with most of thetap constructions commercially available.

It is also evident that the described embodiment can be modified in manyrespects without departing from the inventive idea defined in theattached claims. Thus, there is for instance nothing that prevents theclaws 19 and 20 to extend in opposite directions from those stated.

What I claim is:

1. A water tap comprising a tap casing, a tap cap screwed into same andaccommodating a tap valve member which is axially displaceable towardsand from a valve seat, and an actuating screw turnable by means of ahandle and imposing the axial displacement upon said tap valve member,and a centrum spindle rigidly attached to the handle and forming aconnection between said handle and said screw, characterized in that thecentrum spindle after the overcoming of an initial resistance is axiallydisplaceable relatively to the screw by means of a pulling force appliedto said handle, and that said tap cap and said handle are provided withclaws or the like, extending in opposite direction and arranged to bebrought into engagement with each other by the axial displacement ofsaid handle and said centrum spindle, so that said tap cap is screwableinto or out of said tap causing by means of said handle.

2. A water tap as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said centrumspindle is provided with a hexagonal portion extending into a hexagonalbore in said screw and a peripheral groove for a slotted wire ringabutting against a shoulder in the bore of said screw to exert saidinitial resistance.

3. A water tap as claimed in claim 2, characterized by a furtherperipheral groove at the free end of said centrum spindle and a lockingring in said groove preventing that the centrum spindle is pulled out ofsaid screw.

4. A water tap as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the end ofsaid tap cap protruding out of said tap casing extends into acylindrical cavity of said handle and at the outer edge is provided withclaws extending radially outwards, said claws being arranged forengagement with radially inwards extending claws at the mouth of saidhandle cavity when said handle is axially displaced.

5. A water tap as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the claws ofthe tap cap are positioned at an axial distance from the claws of saidhandle, when said centrum spindle is fully inserted.

6. A water tap as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that the distancebetween said circlip and said locking ring 6 of said centrum spindle isnot less than the axial distance 3,006,361 10/1961 Reinemann 137-4545between the claws of said tap cap and said handle plus 3,190,309 6/1965Staat et a1. 137-454.6 the combined axial length of said claws.

WILLIAM F. ODEA, Primary Examiner References 5 DAVID R. MATHEWS,Assistant Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,064,623 12/1936 Mueller251-96 2,991,795 7/1961 Fraser et a1 137454.6 X 251--96, 215, 284, 318

Po-wfio UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFACATE F CGRRLCTION Patent: No.3,481,350 Dated December 2, 1969 Inventorfi) GUNNAR ARNE GILLBERG It iscertified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that:said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Claim 1, next to last line, the word "causing" should have been casqmgThe sentence should read:

fie screwable into or out of said t ep casing by means of" SIGNED INDSEALED BEAL) Most:

EaMM-mm'k mun 1:.suaunm, Ja. Amazing Officer commissioner of Patents

